Kerry’s been quite the crimefighter lately. At Bethany Beach, my brother-in-law’s skateboard was stolen from under the house we were staying at. A day or two later Kerry spots some teens messing around on what might be the skateboard of interest and a few hours later, she boldly walks under the house…
Let me break in to explain that “under the house” is not a dank, spidery crawlspace or a basement crammed with baby furniture and exercise equipment. At the beach where we stay, all the houses are up on stilts and there are garages, dressing rooms, showers, etc. all under the houses.
Anyway, Kerry sees these same kids shooting hoops in front of a house and, after they ride off on a motorscooter, she walks up, takes a quick look around, and snags the hot board. Take that, youth gone wild!
And then, in response to a “situation” we’ve had in our neighborhood, namely that the guy next door moved down the street and rented out his place to a halfway house for troubled youth. They’re mostly guys in their 20’s and so far, they haven’t really caused any problems but we’d rather not wait around until one of them or one of their co-horts does. Not to mention the dive our neighborhood may be about to take. So we’re planning on moving out of this neighborhood but still staying in the general area. I’ll miss the lot (big trees, leafy green views everywhere, the survival-of-the-fittest experiment that I call a lawn) but a basement and/or a cul-de-sac would be nice.
But I undress…
A guy in our neighborhood made some calls to some county officials but was pretty much ignored. Another neibor tried the same thing but to no avail.
Then...
Enter Mad Dog.
An e-mail here and a call or two there and Kerry gets results! Apparently, the private enterprise running the place has been breaking several codes running a halfway home here and now there’s a U-Haul truck in the driveway.
Adios, meth-heads!
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Like my men...
There’s a great line from Pulp Fiction where Tarantino’s character asks the Wolf how he takes his coffee and he responds, “Lotsa cream, lotsa sugar”. I could blog for pages about how cool that is but I’m not… I’m going to blog about coffee.
When it’s the way the Wolf and I like it, coffee’s a beautiful caramel color, warm and soothing. When it’s how I had it today, with skim milk because we ran out of half-and-half, it’s a dingy gray-brown color… like a dead rat.
At work, I take it horribly… with that scary powdered creamer that was concocted in a chemical plant in New Jersey and extra sugar to drown out the disgusting taste. And yes, I only drink coffee at work as a last resort.
But I do love my coffee. I sometimes think of it before I go to sleep. On the weekends, getting the coffeemaker going is the first thing I start on in the morning. The best coffee I ever had was in Puerto Rico. And usually when I talk about the “best” something I’ve had, I include the setting and everything else about it all wrapped up together. Anyway, this was at a fancy hotel southeast of San Juan (I was there for work) and came with one of my favorite breakfasts… a plain bagel with plain cream cheese… and fruit… and this place had a TON of fruit. Cantelope, mangoes, kiwi, papaya, and a lot of others that I have no idea what they were.
“Is that a breadfruit?”
I do like Starbuck’s coffee when I get it when I travel but, to me, it’s only slightly better than the stuff we buy in giant cans and make at home. And no way is it good enough to justify buying a cup of every day on your way to work.
That’s for chumps.
When it’s the way the Wolf and I like it, coffee’s a beautiful caramel color, warm and soothing. When it’s how I had it today, with skim milk because we ran out of half-and-half, it’s a dingy gray-brown color… like a dead rat.
At work, I take it horribly… with that scary powdered creamer that was concocted in a chemical plant in New Jersey and extra sugar to drown out the disgusting taste. And yes, I only drink coffee at work as a last resort.
But I do love my coffee. I sometimes think of it before I go to sleep. On the weekends, getting the coffeemaker going is the first thing I start on in the morning. The best coffee I ever had was in Puerto Rico. And usually when I talk about the “best” something I’ve had, I include the setting and everything else about it all wrapped up together. Anyway, this was at a fancy hotel southeast of San Juan (I was there for work) and came with one of my favorite breakfasts… a plain bagel with plain cream cheese… and fruit… and this place had a TON of fruit. Cantelope, mangoes, kiwi, papaya, and a lot of others that I have no idea what they were.
“Is that a breadfruit?”
I do like Starbuck’s coffee when I get it when I travel but, to me, it’s only slightly better than the stuff we buy in giant cans and make at home. And no way is it good enough to justify buying a cup of every day on your way to work.
That’s for chumps.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
I Heart Dendrites!
Ok… I’m going to come off sounding like an idiot here because I don’t know the details of what I’m talking about.
But here goes.
In most of the equipment I work with, the sensors (RTD’s - heat sensors that tell the controller the temperature of something, photocells – proximity sensors that sense when the product, ie., a box, is passing a certain point on a conveyor, limit switches – simple mechanical open/close switches that would tell the controller a safety door was open or a button was being pushed) each typically communicate with the controller through it’s own pair of wires that go from the sensor to an input/output board in the controller. You can end up with a lot of wires.
Now there are systems that use control networks and “smart sensors” that not only send the information for which it exists (“115 ohms meaning 350 degrees F”, “I sense a box!”, or “button pushed”) but also a packet of info identifying the sensor. This way, you can run all this information through a single cable instead of hundreds of wire pairs.
My question is… in which way does the human body work? The first (dumb open/close switches) or the second (smart sensors)?
I suspect the second because, in terms of touch, I doubt each and every square millimeter of flesh (or whatever the resolution is on your sense of touch) sends a signal all the way to the brain on it’s very own string of nerve cells. Possibly it has it’s own path to the spinal column then a “smart” signal goes to the brain but I doubt this. I bet it’s smart from the get go. Please once again note that I have no idea what I’m talking about here!
Or take the eye... please.
If you break up everything you can see into pixels the size of whatever resolution your eye can detect, is each rod and cone firing its signal for each pixel along its own string of nerve cells to the brain? That’s a helluva lot of nerve cells.
D’oh! I just looked up something about nerve cells. Apparently some nerve cells in humans can have “axons” (kind of like a loooong hair) that stretch all the way from the spinal cord to the toes. That would imply that the combination method I mentioned above is in effect but now I’m wondering if I’m dead wrong and each pixel of touch (and heat) is going through it’s own unique path all the way to the brain.
The body is freakin’ amazing, ain’t it?
But here goes.
In most of the equipment I work with, the sensors (RTD’s - heat sensors that tell the controller the temperature of something, photocells – proximity sensors that sense when the product, ie., a box, is passing a certain point on a conveyor, limit switches – simple mechanical open/close switches that would tell the controller a safety door was open or a button was being pushed) each typically communicate with the controller through it’s own pair of wires that go from the sensor to an input/output board in the controller. You can end up with a lot of wires.
Now there are systems that use control networks and “smart sensors” that not only send the information for which it exists (“115 ohms meaning 350 degrees F”, “I sense a box!”, or “button pushed”) but also a packet of info identifying the sensor. This way, you can run all this information through a single cable instead of hundreds of wire pairs.
My question is… in which way does the human body work? The first (dumb open/close switches) or the second (smart sensors)?
I suspect the second because, in terms of touch, I doubt each and every square millimeter of flesh (or whatever the resolution is on your sense of touch) sends a signal all the way to the brain on it’s very own string of nerve cells. Possibly it has it’s own path to the spinal column then a “smart” signal goes to the brain but I doubt this. I bet it’s smart from the get go. Please once again note that I have no idea what I’m talking about here!
Or take the eye... please.
If you break up everything you can see into pixels the size of whatever resolution your eye can detect, is each rod and cone firing its signal for each pixel along its own string of nerve cells to the brain? That’s a helluva lot of nerve cells.
D’oh! I just looked up something about nerve cells. Apparently some nerve cells in humans can have “axons” (kind of like a loooong hair) that stretch all the way from the spinal cord to the toes. That would imply that the combination method I mentioned above is in effect but now I’m wondering if I’m dead wrong and each pixel of touch (and heat) is going through it’s own unique path all the way to the brain.
The body is freakin’ amazing, ain’t it?
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Potato-Potato-Potato
Right now I'm munchin' on salt potatoes... a yummy dish my wife grew up with. Another thing about Upstate NY... they have have the best apples I'ver ever tasted.
Screw Oasis
Has there ever been a song where the lyric "do you know what I mean" did not refer to "gettin' your freak on", ya know what I mean?
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Fitness Water?
The whole bottled water insanity kills me. Ten or fifteen years ago if you had suggested bottling plain water and selling it for the price of a Coke you’d have been laughed at. Back then there were the big jugs in some offices, there was Perrier which was fizzy crap for elitists, and there were gallon jugs of distilled water that you bought for your iron. Cups of water from the fountain were free.
But then suddenly the nation’s water supplies were inundated with radioactive nanobots, nerve gas, and the AIDS virus. Or so one would think. The ad agencies created a “need”… one that didn’t exist before… and America drank it in.
Yes, I’ll take a bottle from the bins at the end of races. Yes, I’ve bought a few bottles for plane flights… usually on the company dime. And I may have bought one or two on my own when all I wanted was a water. Oh, and when I was in Mexico and China I bought lot’s of them… and put’em all down on the expense report. But usually, I drink tap water which as far as I can tell, tastes fine in all the places in which I’ve lived. And I don’t use one of those filter attachments. I’ve heard of people installing these for their entire home supply… including showers.
But hey, if you want to spend your money on bottled water, fine. Go ahead. But, goddamn it, remember which bottle is yours!
It’s the waste that really kills me. I’ve seen families whose homes are littered with half-empty bottles of water. And typically they end up taking up space in the trash and then, of course, the landfills… each bottle with 8-10 ounces of high-priced water trapped in it’s now-squished volume. Water that could be in a houseplant, or in the leaves of a tree, or in one of the dried up rivers and drained lakes surrounding some sprawling metrop.
Personally, I love walking into my kitchen after a run or mowing the lawn and taking a long draught straight from the faucet… or better yet, from the hose.
It ain’t so bad...
and I haven’t died yet.
But then suddenly the nation’s water supplies were inundated with radioactive nanobots, nerve gas, and the AIDS virus. Or so one would think. The ad agencies created a “need”… one that didn’t exist before… and America drank it in.
Yes, I’ll take a bottle from the bins at the end of races. Yes, I’ve bought a few bottles for plane flights… usually on the company dime. And I may have bought one or two on my own when all I wanted was a water. Oh, and when I was in Mexico and China I bought lot’s of them… and put’em all down on the expense report. But usually, I drink tap water which as far as I can tell, tastes fine in all the places in which I’ve lived. And I don’t use one of those filter attachments. I’ve heard of people installing these for their entire home supply… including showers.
But hey, if you want to spend your money on bottled water, fine. Go ahead. But, goddamn it, remember which bottle is yours!
It’s the waste that really kills me. I’ve seen families whose homes are littered with half-empty bottles of water. And typically they end up taking up space in the trash and then, of course, the landfills… each bottle with 8-10 ounces of high-priced water trapped in it’s now-squished volume. Water that could be in a houseplant, or in the leaves of a tree, or in one of the dried up rivers and drained lakes surrounding some sprawling metrop.
Personally, I love walking into my kitchen after a run or mowing the lawn and taking a long draught straight from the faucet… or better yet, from the hose.
It ain’t so bad...
and I haven’t died yet.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Tanned. Rested. And ready.
We’re back from Bethany Beach, Jewel of Delmarva. Did the extended beach week thing. This time we stayed at a house about a mile off the beach but we really only slept there. Every morning we’d head over to the aunt’s place on the beach (4 or 5 times Liam rode his bike while I jogged alongside or rode my bike). Then we’d schlep umbrellas, chairs, shovels, and beach toys up to our spot and there we’d sit all day. I never used to like the beach because there was really nothing to do but with the kids now in my life, nothing to do is not so bad!
Actually, I hardly ever just sit and read. Most of the time I’m building sandcastles, collecting shells and rocks for Erin's various projects, or horsing around in the waves. One day, we kayaked on an inlet and since I need to find an upper body workout I can stick with, I may checkout the feasibility of doing this on the Chatahoochee.
One night, we dined on blue crabs smothered in Old Bay. Threw down an old tablecloth on a picnic table under the house (it’s on stilts). Added a bunch of cobs of corn and three rolls of paper towels. Tasty stuff but a lot of work...though I love these kinds of social meals where a lot of beer is drunk but I can only think of a few. Crabs are one. Wings are another. The only other one I know of is Hot Pot which I had in China where there is this big, boiling pot in the middle of the table full of yummy hot sinus-clearing spices. You put all kinds of things – veggies, live shrimp on skewers, raw beef, whatever – into this cauldron and let’em cook a bit then eat. Delish!
Anyone know of any others?
Actually, I hardly ever just sit and read. Most of the time I’m building sandcastles, collecting shells and rocks for Erin's various projects, or horsing around in the waves. One day, we kayaked on an inlet and since I need to find an upper body workout I can stick with, I may checkout the feasibility of doing this on the Chatahoochee.
One night, we dined on blue crabs smothered in Old Bay. Threw down an old tablecloth on a picnic table under the house (it’s on stilts). Added a bunch of cobs of corn and three rolls of paper towels. Tasty stuff but a lot of work...though I love these kinds of social meals where a lot of beer is drunk but I can only think of a few. Crabs are one. Wings are another. The only other one I know of is Hot Pot which I had in China where there is this big, boiling pot in the middle of the table full of yummy hot sinus-clearing spices. You put all kinds of things – veggies, live shrimp on skewers, raw beef, whatever – into this cauldron and let’em cook a bit then eat. Delish!
Anyone know of any others?
Thursday, July 12, 2007
The fruit I eat is over ripe.
Well, a lot of things are going on right now… the epic four month war with the poison ivy in the backyard is gradually coming to a close, I’ve fallen in love again with Superfuzz Bigmuff and King of the Road, and the joint next door has become a halfway house… privately-run and probably no big deal but most likely, we’re gonna shuffle along to another neighborhood, hopefully to a place with a basement so toys won’t be constantly underfoot.Alas, I can’t go into detail about any of these earth-shattering events because we’re packin’ up and hitting the road tomorrow for a week in Bethany Beach, about a half-hour south of Funland!
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Silly Forth
Wednesday I did the Peachtree. I did want I wanted to do… beat my last year’s time… but it was close. A lot closer than I thought it would be since I trained more and it was cooler but, hey, I guess that’s what turning 40 means.
One problem was I started out a little too fast. The first 3 miles I averaged 7:30 per mile. Then the hill killed me and, at 5 miles, I ended up 30 seconds behind where I needed to be to beat my last time and had to kill myself to get 48:03 which was 5 seconds better than last year.
After the friends we were meeting all showed up, we went to Susie’s where I showered up then we went to a cookout at her parents’ house. Good ribs and an awesome backyard!
We stayed there for a while and Kerry decided she wanted to see the fireworks at Centennial Park. I was practically falling asleep and hated that idea but we ended up at her brother’s place near Emory to hang out until it was time to go to downtown.
Mike, my brother-in-law, just graduated from Emory and he lives right next to the college so the street was one of those social areas where everybody knows each other and kind of walks back and forth between houses… especially on a party day like the 4th.
Anyway, I was looking for a Coke to wake up but the only thing in the fridge was beer so I had to “suffer” with that. Liam was playing with one of their dozen or so game consoles and Kerry and Erin were out on the lawn watching some “kids” fool around on skateboards. Some friends of Mike’s came by and somehow I ended up at a house across the street playing beer-pong.
Kerry says she played it a few times in college but I’ve never heard of it. They had a large flat table setup on a typical college beer can-strewn and ripped-up screened-in porch. Basically, you arrange 10 plastic cups of beer at both ends of the table then each team of two takes turns tossing a ping-pong ball aiming for one of the cups.
And, of course, you drink.
Carl and I ended up winning two or three games handily but Kate and her roommate just barely won the last game before I bowed out. I have to admit it was a lot of fun reliving my drinking game days but that ship has long since sailed in more ways than one.
We headed down to the madness that is the 4th of July fireworks show at Centennial Park, parked under in overpass in an area that looked like the suitcase of money/kidnap victim trade-off scene in a mob movie, and soon found ourselves sitting on the grass amongst a sea of families all snacking and awaiting the show.
At one point, Liam and I were in one of the long lines for the too few port-a-lets and a woman joined a guy in front of us complaining that some folks were getting crazy or causing trouble or something… she wasn’t making complete sense. She left and soon people started coughing all around me… it wasn’t bugging me but most were saying it was mace.
Liam really had to go so I talked a guy just about to go in to let him cut in and while I stood outside a loud bang went off and, over in the area from which it happened, I saw crowds of people running in all directions. People were saying it was a gun shot and were leaving the line area so I hurried Liam out of the john and headed back to Kerry and Mike. I guess it could have been a firecracker being the 4th and all but all the bits and pieces of conversation I heard were saying it was a shot and one person specified it was not a firecracker.
Since we were not that near where the problem was and things had seemed to calm down plus we were in a huge crowd and the fireworks were just about to start, we decided to stay. They were cool and all like always. And, just like the last time we were at Centennial for the 4th, there were a few stray fireworks blasting down into the crowd area so there was even more of that sort of unwanted excitement. Then, the long slow walk back to the car was like a tour through Buckhead 3am on a Sunday mornin’.
My head hit the pillow hard when we finally made it home after midnight. Going to work the next morning was not my idea of a freakin' holiday, ya know what I’m sayin’?!
One problem was I started out a little too fast. The first 3 miles I averaged 7:30 per mile. Then the hill killed me and, at 5 miles, I ended up 30 seconds behind where I needed to be to beat my last time and had to kill myself to get 48:03 which was 5 seconds better than last year.
After the friends we were meeting all showed up, we went to Susie’s where I showered up then we went to a cookout at her parents’ house. Good ribs and an awesome backyard!
We stayed there for a while and Kerry decided she wanted to see the fireworks at Centennial Park. I was practically falling asleep and hated that idea but we ended up at her brother’s place near Emory to hang out until it was time to go to downtown.
Mike, my brother-in-law, just graduated from Emory and he lives right next to the college so the street was one of those social areas where everybody knows each other and kind of walks back and forth between houses… especially on a party day like the 4th.
Anyway, I was looking for a Coke to wake up but the only thing in the fridge was beer so I had to “suffer” with that. Liam was playing with one of their dozen or so game consoles and Kerry and Erin were out on the lawn watching some “kids” fool around on skateboards. Some friends of Mike’s came by and somehow I ended up at a house across the street playing beer-pong.
Kerry says she played it a few times in college but I’ve never heard of it. They had a large flat table setup on a typical college beer can-strewn and ripped-up screened-in porch. Basically, you arrange 10 plastic cups of beer at both ends of the table then each team of two takes turns tossing a ping-pong ball aiming for one of the cups.
And, of course, you drink.
Carl and I ended up winning two or three games handily but Kate and her roommate just barely won the last game before I bowed out. I have to admit it was a lot of fun reliving my drinking game days but that ship has long since sailed in more ways than one.
We headed down to the madness that is the 4th of July fireworks show at Centennial Park, parked under in overpass in an area that looked like the suitcase of money/kidnap victim trade-off scene in a mob movie, and soon found ourselves sitting on the grass amongst a sea of families all snacking and awaiting the show.
At one point, Liam and I were in one of the long lines for the too few port-a-lets and a woman joined a guy in front of us complaining that some folks were getting crazy or causing trouble or something… she wasn’t making complete sense. She left and soon people started coughing all around me… it wasn’t bugging me but most were saying it was mace.
Liam really had to go so I talked a guy just about to go in to let him cut in and while I stood outside a loud bang went off and, over in the area from which it happened, I saw crowds of people running in all directions. People were saying it was a gun shot and were leaving the line area so I hurried Liam out of the john and headed back to Kerry and Mike. I guess it could have been a firecracker being the 4th and all but all the bits and pieces of conversation I heard were saying it was a shot and one person specified it was not a firecracker.
Since we were not that near where the problem was and things had seemed to calm down plus we were in a huge crowd and the fireworks were just about to start, we decided to stay. They were cool and all like always. And, just like the last time we were at Centennial for the 4th, there were a few stray fireworks blasting down into the crowd area so there was even more of that sort of unwanted excitement. Then, the long slow walk back to the car was like a tour through Buckhead 3am on a Sunday mornin’.
My head hit the pillow hard when we finally made it home after midnight. Going to work the next morning was not my idea of a freakin' holiday, ya know what I’m sayin’?!
Monday, July 02, 2007
With MINTY, every day is a dizzy delight!
In their choice of toy passions, my kids are very retro. Although neither Kerry nor I were into these, Liam's into the Transformers which started in 1984 and Erin is into the My Little Pony dolls which started in 82.For a while with Liam’s Transformers, since all the characters have names and stories, plus I figured someday he might think it was cool to know which ones he had, I tried to keep up with the toys… and actually I still am but I know I’ll have to give it up soon.
Anyway, to keep things even and because I have an OCD side of my head that needs to come out every once in a while, I’m keeping up with the ponies… much more so than Erin herself.
I think her first was Minty who she got around 2 years ago… she used to play in the pool with it. She came up with another somehow… Glitter Glide, I think. Back then, these were just two of hundreds of little girl toys she had.
Then in May, when we were at Disney, we stopped by a toy story where they had a whole massive My Little Pony dress-up thing. She ended up with two more ponies… Cinnamon Breeze and Merriweather. Plus she got a bunch of clothes for them.
So now she has four ponies, not to mention Tra-La-La, a little pony that came with Meriweather’s balloon set. And instead of making up stories about Buzz Lightyear infiltrating Zurg’s asteroid fortress and Bilbo tricking Gollum under the Misty Mountains, I’m telling how Minty and Glitter Glide ended up sipping cocoa at the ski chalet when who dropped by?
Why Cinnamon Breeze, that’s who!
Things are never dull when Cinnamon Breeze is around! This lively pony is always full of exciting new ideas for having fun. She has so many ideas, in fact, that they come and go like the breeze—better catch the latest one before it's gone!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
I guess I’ve finally joined the 21st century.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Intown Hijinks
Last Saturday, I headed intown to hang out with Matt and Travis in celebration of T and my upcoming birthdays. We had dinner at 6 Feet Under which is a very cool little seafood/bar-type joint around the corner from Matt’s…. across from Oakland Cemetery. I came up with the idea to get raw oysters on the half-shell. I don’t know why but it’s one of those foods that I decide every 10 years or so to try again and see if I like it. When it comes to food, I hardly ever burn bridges.
Mehh… they’re alright but I probably won’t get’em again for another ten.
Shot some pool and saw a band at the “new” Lenny’s. Get this.. the band was named Dark Overlord.
Dark Overlord? You’ve got to be kidding. We decided their marketing campaign needs to have the guy that voices the monster truck ads proclaiming “Trapped in a glacier since the early Eightes and only now freed from their icy crypt… it’s Dark Overlord!!!!” Actually, they did sound like they’d make a pretty decent Slayer tribute band.
Finally, hit the place where all the kids are hangin’ out these days. To me, Astoria has absolutely no atmosphere. I just feel like I’m at a crowded restaurant. In it’s defense, however, the two or three times I’ve been there have been after three a.m. and I’ve been half-blasted but I still say it’s no Earl.
Speaking of half-blasted, the night ended with a beer shower for yours truly and it took me ten minutes to find my clothes the next morning. Happy Birthday to Jim.
Mehh… they’re alright but I probably won’t get’em again for another ten.
Shot some pool and saw a band at the “new” Lenny’s. Get this.. the band was named Dark Overlord.
Dark Overlord? You’ve got to be kidding. We decided their marketing campaign needs to have the guy that voices the monster truck ads proclaiming “Trapped in a glacier since the early Eightes and only now freed from their icy crypt… it’s Dark Overlord!!!!” Actually, they did sound like they’d make a pretty decent Slayer tribute band.
Finally, hit the place where all the kids are hangin’ out these days. To me, Astoria has absolutely no atmosphere. I just feel like I’m at a crowded restaurant. In it’s defense, however, the two or three times I’ve been there have been after three a.m. and I’ve been half-blasted but I still say it’s no Earl.
Speaking of half-blasted, the night ended with a beer shower for yours truly and it took me ten minutes to find my clothes the next morning. Happy Birthday to Jim.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
P-l-l-l-leeeeeease!!!!
Regarding Liam's readiness for PG movies.... forget it. I rented Roger Rabbit last Saturday for Family Movie Night, thinking the PG rating was only given for Jessica's less-than-modest attributes but, no, there was a guy shot in the back twice and a pretty scary performance by Christopher Lloyd not to mention his getting run over by a steamroller before you know he's a Toon.
I should have cut it off when Lloyd "killed" a cutesy cartoon shoe by "dipping" it in acid.
Bad Dad... bad!
I should have cut it off when Lloyd "killed" a cutesy cartoon shoe by "dipping" it in acid.
Bad Dad... bad!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Certainly, Ma'am.
Sometimes I wonder if very physically attractive women have an altered sense of reality. I mean, every guy they meet, every male cashier, repairman, desk clerk, and every cop they cross paths with treats them sweetly… “oh, no problem.. I can take care of that for you, miss”. I can’t imagine they get the blasé indifference that’s the norm from service personnel. Every Home Depot guy hops to assist them with quick attentiveness. The guy checking the groceries is smiling and cheerful. The world is such a happy, helpful place!!
But, then again, I guess they also get the annoying glances, the disturbing leers, and the persistent guys that won’t stop coming on to them. And maybe people being nervously nice to you all the time gets to be a pain. It’s all relative as usual.
But, then again, I guess they also get the annoying glances, the disturbing leers, and the persistent guys that won’t stop coming on to them. And maybe people being nervously nice to you all the time gets to be a pain. It’s all relative as usual.
Friday, June 15, 2007
By the way...
Just in case you didn't know, the reason that the Transformers movie is a big topic in the household is that one of Liam's obsessions is playing with them... as detailed here.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Autobots, transform and roll out!
Next month, the new Transformers movie opens. I just found out that it’s a PG-13… and even worse (for Liam’s sake), it just scraped by getting an R. Sure, a lot of this is publicity… Hollywood wanting its cake (toys) and eating it, too (adults want an edgy movie) but either way, Liam won’t be seeing it anytime soon.To be honest though, I’m not sure if Liam would even get upset by it. Cars being tossed around wouldn’t phase him. I’m not sure how people getting shot would effect him. I suspect it wouldn’t bother him much but even so, there’s no reason for him to see that stuff for a while.
I’m not saying he’s desensitized… far from it. If there’s any suspenseful situations or anything that even hints of ghosts or something about to pop out, he’s out of the room. He couldn’t even get past the first 5 minutes of Revenge of the Jedi because Jabba the Hut’s castle was too ominous.
I told him I’d wait until he could see Transformers and we’d watch it together but he said he wants me to go and then tell him about it… which works for me because I kind of want to see it. I never grew up with the toys so couldn’t care less about keeping to the “true spirit” of the cartoons. An action-packed, robots-shooting-missiles-while-smashing-through-cars thrillfest definitely sounds like something I want to see on the big screen versus someone’s widescreen in 5 years and, of course, I wouldn’t even bother watching it on our TV. Like a lot of others of our ilk, Kerry and I hardly go out to see movies anymore so when we do, we tend to see eye candy.
That being said, the flick better have a decent story and something to make you care what happens to the characters or I’ll walk out feeling I wasted my time and money like I usually do after I see one of these movies. Likely it won’t but it’ll probably have enough.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Mike Nesmith's mother was the inventor of Liquid Paper
I found this on one of the very few sites I regularly visit on the Net. Along with Snopes, I check out the Onion (and actually their A.V. Club much more than the humor site), Yahoo News (hey, it’s there), 2 or 3 blogs, and maybe Boortz’s site every once in a while… that’s about it. Oh wait, I used to go to Craig’s Previews every few weeks but now only monthly.
And that's all I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one other thing – except for this ashtray.
And this paddle game. That's all I need.
Anyway, I still use Liquid Paper. Granted, only once or twice a month… barely enough to keep it liquid. In college, I was probably one of the last students to use the Typewriter Lab to type up a paper. I think the Mac’s were comin’ in but I didn’t want to deal with signing up or accounts or whatever so stayed with the ink-smeared keys.
Come to think of it, other than one FORTRAN class, I rarely used a PC in college… at least not undergrad. I did actually write a game on a TRS-80 when I was in Junior High. It was a Space Invader-style thing but with only one alien. But it DID come at you!
My first experience with the Net was on my roomate’s PC. Wait a sec, now that I think of it, I did use a PC in college…. playing Lemmings, Incredible Machine, and Civilization while my roommate was at his girlfriend’s. When he was on it one night (his computer, that is!), I realized he was writing text messages… but more importantly, he was receiving them.
“You mean those are from other people?!”
But even more than the technology, I remember being amazed at the fact that it was FREE and argued that there was no way that would last for long. Yeah.
Back in those wild and crazy days, people didn’t think anything of having a few and starting up their computers and heading to their homepage but I’m ashamed to say that my first post was made while I was intoxicated… and it wasn’t even under my own username! The horror…
I didn’t get my own e-mail address until years later in Atlanta… on Yahoo probably around 95 or 96. And, along with my work one, it’s the only one I’ve ever had.
And that's all I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one other thing – except for this ashtray.
And this paddle game. That's all I need.
Anyway, I still use Liquid Paper. Granted, only once or twice a month… barely enough to keep it liquid. In college, I was probably one of the last students to use the Typewriter Lab to type up a paper. I think the Mac’s were comin’ in but I didn’t want to deal with signing up or accounts or whatever so stayed with the ink-smeared keys.
Come to think of it, other than one FORTRAN class, I rarely used a PC in college… at least not undergrad. I did actually write a game on a TRS-80 when I was in Junior High. It was a Space Invader-style thing but with only one alien. But it DID come at you!
My first experience with the Net was on my roomate’s PC. Wait a sec, now that I think of it, I did use a PC in college…. playing Lemmings, Incredible Machine, and Civilization while my roommate was at his girlfriend’s. When he was on it one night (his computer, that is!), I realized he was writing text messages… but more importantly, he was receiving them.
“You mean those are from other people?!”
But even more than the technology, I remember being amazed at the fact that it was FREE and argued that there was no way that would last for long. Yeah.
Back in those wild and crazy days, people didn’t think anything of having a few and starting up their computers and heading to their homepage but I’m ashamed to say that my first post was made while I was intoxicated… and it wasn’t even under my own username! The horror…
I didn’t get my own e-mail address until years later in Atlanta… on Yahoo probably around 95 or 96. And, along with my work one, it’s the only one I’ve ever had.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Fort Wilderness... Now in Technicolor!
Here's the campsite. Note that we left everything out all the time even when we gone for hours... just like everyone else did.
Here's us standing DIRECTLY in front of the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. The monorail station that we instead went to is off to the left.
Here's the obligatory pool pic. Kerry's taking the photo (as in 99.5% of the time). My sister visited us for one day and night. Note that they sell draft beer at a window in the building in the background!
The fam and Chip (or is it Dale?) at the place where they had campfire sing-a-longs followed by a movie.
And of course, what review of camping at Disney would be complete without a shot of the fancy-schmancy "Comfort Stations"? Not your typical campground port-a-let, eh?
Here's us standing DIRECTLY in front of the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. The monorail station that we instead went to is off to the left.
Here's the obligatory pool pic. Kerry's taking the photo (as in 99.5% of the time). My sister visited us for one day and night. Note that they sell draft beer at a window in the building in the background!
The fam and Chip (or is it Dale?) at the place where they had campfire sing-a-longs followed by a movie.
And of course, what review of camping at Disney would be complete without a shot of the fancy-schmancy "Comfort Stations"? Not your typical campground port-a-let, eh?
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